Nothing pleases me more than a good stealth game, so whenDalton Link posted up a fifteen minute demonstration of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes running on the newly released PS4 I was all over it. The playthrough originally aired at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show and shows a well-bearded snake sneaking in to a military facility in to retrieve a cassette tape containing classified information.

The game is as pretty as always, and we get a good idea of things like bullet drop, enemy spotting, hiding bodies, place map markers... I was a little off-put by reflex mode (when you’re spotted for the first time the action slows down giving you time to react), but apparently it can be switched off, then in the last half of the demo it all goes predictably wrong, and Snake has to get his gun out and start unloading rounds into people.

The developers behind Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes seem to be taking a pseudo-sandbox approach to some of the side missions. When the helicopter falls in the demo, we watch as Snake is forced to find an alternative escape route; players will need to think flexibly and act quickly should the mission go awry. The ability to escape despite the initial plan failing varies the otherwise linear nature of the mission, keeping players on their toes.

Link is also “proud to announce” an exclusive Déjà Vu throwback mission for PlayStation players: “by setting up shots from scenes based on the events of the past, you’ll be recreating the events of Shadow Moses as you take control of Naked Snake as he tackles Camp Omega in totally new, yet oddly familiar conditions.”

The trailer for this new mission looks fantastic, but maybe I’m just being nostalgic...